NO ONE (health)CARES!

You know when you see that disaster about to happen and all you can do is shake your head. Well that’s how I feel about the Republicans’ plans for their new control of the house. Soon-to-be Speaker John Boehner has “vowed to dismantle the healthcare ‘monstrosity’” according to the LA Times. This is a TERRIBLE idea for Republicans.

I’m not going to defend the healthcare bill, I’m saying strategically, Republicans are about to make the exact same mistake Democrats made. Very few people care about healthcare even when they do have jobs, let alone now when unemployment is hitting 10 percent. When the Dems had control all they really accomplished was healthcare (or at least this was the perception, which is all that matters) and we saw how it worked out for them. People voted them out because they felt like there was too much time spent on this arcane bill and not enough effectively stimulating the economy. Now Republicans are going to focus on “repealing Obamacare” because that’s what they campaigned on, but anything they do will be vetoed, meaning that they will have nothing to show for their control of Congress. Americans want results.

Here’s what the Republicans should do, nothing but jobs bills. Job bill after job bill after job bill. Stuff that will get them credit if it passes or blow up in the Senate’s/President’s faces if they stymie it. The Republicans own the narrative right now, but if they make it all about killing healthcare, they will be as dumb as the 60 now dismissed Congressmen and women whose jobs they now have.

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The hard part is that if someone does not dismantle this new entitlement we will be stuck with it forever, same as social security or Medicaid. Once people start to receive an entitlement it personalizes it and they will do what ever they can to keep it, because they are entitled to it.

I agree that they need to focus on jobs if they wish to keep the momentum until 2012, but letting Obamacare begin without any changes is a grave mistake.

So what you’re saying is that once people realize that this bill is good for them they will not want to kill it, I agree.

But seriously, they don’t have a chance of repealing it without the Senate and especially not with no senate and no President. Not to mention http://www.kff.org/kaiserpolls/8120.cfm and other polls are showing people don’t think healthcare is a priority.

Republicans look like they are going to fall into the same traps as the Democrats, focussing on something other than the economy.

Thanks for the comment though, I see your point even if I disagree with it.

Quite the opposite: regulations and entitlements suck the lifeblood out of the economy. Obamacare has already (late September 2011) caused increases in health insurance premiums and decreased coverage among adults. There’s also the added cost and uncertainty to businesses, which have stopped hiring, unsure of the future cost of their employees. The problem was not Democrats focusing on an obscure issue with little relevance. The problem was Democrats pushing a policy the public did not want, one that could hamstring the economy. The cost of leaving Obamacare in place is letting the economy continue its downward spiral. That is the reason (ignoring the gross constitutional breach and rights violation it represents) it needs to be repealed.